With some apprehension we pressed the intercom to our
hostel and walked up the stairs to the first floor of a dingy, old apartment
building in the centre of Rome. We had read mixed reviews about this hostel
(with rumours of bed bugs...) but the price and location was too hard to pass
by so we took a risk. As we opened the door and lugged our bags through we were
greeted by a stream of Italian, ending in, “Spaghetti and disco party tonight,
all free! You’ll be here?” Being both hungry and thirsty we readily agreed, and
were soon sitting at a long table with our fellow backpackers and techno music
pumping in our ears. What a welcome to Rome!
The next day, feeling more than a little sorry for
ourselves, we were kicked out of our hostel for cleaning at what we felt was an
ungodly hour (11 am). Forced to go sightseeing, we set off down the street
without much direction, and stumbled into the colosseum. Towering above us, the
sheer size and completeness of the ancient stadium is astounding, even for Ash
on her third visit to Rome. After walking around its perimeter we continued our
wanderings, passing through the public square Piazza Navona, and ending in
Castel Sant’ Angelo (think Angels and Demons). It’s hard not to fall in love
with Rome, which is vibrant, cultural, mysterious and ancient. There is history
at every turn, and it often feels as though you have gone back in time. You
wouldn’t blink an eye if you passed a Roman gladiator (in fact you do
constantly, as people seem to enjoy dressing as them and trying to convince you
to take a photo). We definitely didn’t spend long enough in Rome to do it
justice as we needed to keep pressing on to northern Italy, but Sophie vowed to
come back and explore the city properly on her next visit.
On route to our first farm stay, we stopped in the
city of Bologna for few days. Bologna is home to the world’s oldest university,
and also the birthplace of Bolognese sauce (or ‘ragu’ in Italian). During our
stay we sampled both of these sides of the city, browsing the many museums and
basilicas on the university side, and doing our best to eat meals the way Italians do. This usually
involves multiple courses enjoyed slowly with a glass of wine, though we often
struggled with the slow part. However as they say, practice makes perfect, and
we aim to master this by the end of our Italy stay.
Upon embarking on this adventure we had planned, for
both saving money and cultural purposes, to take advantage of a program called
help exchange (or Help X). This allows travellers to work in exchange for food
and board in a variety of farms, hostels, ranches etc. We organised to stay and
work on a farm not far from Bologna, near the village Dozza. We arrived on the
13th of May, excited to escape from hostels for a week, and enjoy getting stuck
into some work (and some Italian home cooked meals). We definitely weren’t disappointed
by either. The farm is owned by an English/Italian family, Davide and Victoria,
and their two young children. It is primarily a hobby farm that produces
grapes, cherries, ricotta from their own goats, and other vegetables. The
family is also currently renovating part of their house involving mostly "manly" work with various power tools. All of these things kept us more than busy during
our time there.
Our typical day usually started at 8 am, when we
trekked up the hill to collect weeds for the goats’ breakfast. The rest of the
morning we spent cleaning, gardening, painting, fencing, restoring furniture
and doing some housework, before stopping at midday to cook the men and ourselves
lunch. Italians really do seem to eat pasta for every meal, and its amazing the
variations of pasta that we were able to concoct during the week. On one
particularly ‘empty pantry’ day, Sophie created a tinned tuna and mackerel cream
pasta, which was surprisingly delicious. The rest of the day is filled up with
odd jobs before the girls come home and demanded everyone’s attention. Dinner
is usually, you guessed it, more pasta, and a few glasses of wine before
dragging our hard worked selves to bed.
We really enjoyed our stay with the family and we were
sad to stay goodbye. However, after 10 days we were more than ready to get our
backpacks back on, and set off in search of our next Italian adventure.
Until next time,
Ash and Soph xo
